Shelley Pease:
A home-grown success story

Story and photos by Marilis Hornidge

Say it with flowers…for Christmas? For the winter holiday season?

No shrinking violet, Waldoboro’s Shelley Pease has overcome countless challenges for 20 years to build a successful floral and gift business in her home town.

“For any day,” says Shelley Pease of Shelley’s Flowers & Gifts, “but especially for this time of the year—for days when you want to give someone a real lift of the spirit. Winter’s cold and grey enough; flowers…” she pauses—a thing she can rarely manage right now, “give it heart.”

And she’s right, and her flowers do just that.

For example, take the Holiday Open House (which occurred on the cusp of the winter season) in mid-November. There were kids everywhere—riding in the horse-drawn wagon with much laughing, a little shoving and several awed faces at the size of Dick and Ben, the gentle-but-spirited giants who pulled Pinewood Farm’s holiday wagon. In the annex, Santa mixed and mingled with bunches of children (some wide-eyed, some not quite sure of what was happening—but none of them missing any chances to make requests). Small hands fingered iced ginger persons, faces were being painted, kids nudged each other over a small display of potential presents for parents.

Shelley’s Flowers & Gifts is a breath-enhancing charmer of a place any day, but most especially at this season. This is the result of a lot of planning, a Technicolor dream and an on-growing reality by Shelley Pease, a hometown-girl-made-good story if there ever was one. A true entrepreneur in an often look-alike business, a feet-on-the-ground dreamer in a specialized (and often pinch-penny world), Shelley has moved at her own considered pace from small space to enhanced place to room-to-grow reality, always with a plan in mind—and the innate ability to see change coming and leave room for it.

Catch her with a little breathing room to spare and she’ll give you an idea about how she got there—no bragging—direct and straightforward. “You’d better know business practices inside and out,” she says—as befits one who graduated from USM with an associate’s degree in the subject. “Then an outside interest with lots of possibilities starts making it real. A friend of mine was interested in the florist business and I thought, that sounds neat—check it out.” Her hands are never still when she’s down in the shop.

There is always something to be done or changed or just slightly modified, like the display of wonderful Victorian prints at an amazing price—perfect for a Victorian-deco buff for Christmas, which she ranks as one of her iffies. “You think something will sell—it doesn’t, so you move it along. Can’t call ’em all,” she says with a shrug. Gradually, she added gift “stuff” to the flowers, “but it had to be the right things, not just clutter…and believe me, that’s a choice that’s harder than it sounds.”

What is her secret for moving a one-focus business into a centered destination for givers? “Hard work to get you where you’re going,” she says. “Education so you know what to do when you get there.” She cocks her head, rearranges the dried flowers in a dazzler of a wreath. “Caring about and knowing the people you’re selling to.”

For Pease, that secondary phase of education began in Simons School of Floral Design in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It continues as participant/student/officer in the Maine State Florist and Growers Association, which gives classes, public shows and scholarships to its members and would-be members, sets up conventions and trade shows and their panels, and serves as a link for all those in the floral community. Pease has been a board member, officer and a perpetual student from the moment she joined. “It ties us together,” she muses.

Education? Knowing what’s out there—what’s in. “That has two sides,” says Pease as she looks around to make sure there isn’t anything not being tended to. “You do have to know what the latest trends are—right now, it’s a very Asian influence—all structural and grace. Before that, it was European, tight bouquets and lushness. Carnations are in again…that sort of thing. But, you also have to know the people you’re selling to. You can’t underestimate their taste or take them for granted or, on the other hand, be afraid to take chances that they’ll like what you like.” Again, that half-gamine grin flashes out. “Helps to be from the place,” she says. “Give a new idea a try and if it doesn’t catch on, move along. That fashionable whatever may loop back and then you’re ready for it, a step-and-a-half ahead, not a block behind and trying to catch up.”

Shelley’s Flowers & Gifts has an upstairs room that is very different from the bustling wrap-around aromatic showcase below. It’s Pease’s office. On the bright white walls around her busy desk, files and cubbyholes that surround it are a multitude of quotes, articles and remembrances of people from Angus King to Sam Walton—people who had a dream and went right for it. “When I get tangled up and worry about the way I’m doing things or treating people or looking at the world,” she says, “I come up here and re-read words from people who have really been there.” Call it meditation, call it self-affirmation, call it inner motivation…for her, it certainly works. When she talks about her timeouts, her face is focused; dark eyes offering a serious look. This is one lady who reads the roadmap.

Why work for yourself? Back in that busy showroom, the look says it all. “It’s my dream,” she says. “I’ve been the independent type forever. If you’re prepared, if you know what you’re talking about, who else ought to carry the tune?” There is a murmur from the middle of the room where her mother, Mona, is handling the desk. It’s an affirmative, loving sound, and Pease grins. “My dad called me Flower since forever,” she says. “I guess it’s fate,” and a quiet laugh echoes from the desk.

If the fragrance of a florist’s shop—an old-fashioned one turned modern like this one, where there is no incense burning, just the clean clear scent of flowers and greenery—could be replicated as a perfume, it would probably outsell Chanel—and be called Shelley’s Fate. Pease looks pensive when she hears that. “I don’t really smell it anymore,” she says softly…

…Everyone else does, it’s one of the sheer pleasures of walking in the door.

FMI: Shelley’s Flowers & Gifts is at 1738 Atlantic Highway (Route 1) in Waldoboro, with hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. For more information, call 832.6312, email <shelleys@midcoast.com> or visit the Web site at shelleysflowers.com.